Influential singing duo starting in the [[OlderThanTheyThink late 1950s]] but mainly in the TheSixties. Almost as important to the surf-pop scene as Music/TheBeachBoys, Jan and Dean made countless songs, some of which are commonly {{misattributed|Song}} to the Beach Boys. The rivalry between the acts was a friendly one; in fact, Music/BrianWilson co-wrote several of their hits, sang backup on "Surf City", and allowed the tune of "Catch a Wave" to be re-used for "Sidewalk Surfin'". Dean, in turn, sang lead on the Beach Boys' version of "Barbara Ann".

Their full names were William Jan Berry (1941–2004) and Dean [[EmbarrassingMiddleName Ormsby]] Torrence (1940– ), and they first met playing high school football together in Los Angeles. Berry first came onto the pop scene with 1958's "Jennie Lee", recorded with Arnie Ginsberg as "Jan and Arnie" due to Torrance getting drafted into the U.S. Army Reserve. Berry and Torrance scored their first hit as a duo with "BabyTalk" in 1959, and kept singing while going through college at UCLA (unlike the Beach Boys). However, tragedy struck in 1966 when Jan crashed his car a short distance near Dead Man's Curve in Beverly Hills, slipping into a two-month-long coma and suffering partial paralysis and brain damage but retaining his genius-level intelligence. The duo had a comeback in the 1970s. Berry died in 2004, but Torrence continues to tour and give interviews.

* TheAllegedCar: "Bucket 'T'".* CarSong: "Bucket 'T'", "Dead Man's Curve", "Drag City", and "The Little Old Lady from Pasadena", among countless others.* ChristmasSongs: They did a version of "Frosty the Snowman" for a 1962 single.* ConceptAlbum: Although, sadly, almost forgotten today, ''Jan & Dean Meet Batman'' was one of rock's earliest examples. Half the record is music inspired by the comic books and the [[Series/{{Batman}} TV show]], including a cover of the latter's theme; some lyrics of the songs are taken directly from ''Detective Comics'' #27. The other half details the adventures of "Captain Jan & Dean the Boy Blunder," an AffectionateParody both of UsefulNotes/TheSilverAgeOfComicBooks and also of the just-passed [[RadioDrama Golden Age of Radio]]. The cuts alternate between type, and as an added bonus, the comedy is funny and the music is catchy.** ''Surf City (and Other Swingin' Cities)'' is an even earlier example, with each song being named after a city.** The following album, ''Drag City'', is centered around cars and hot-rod racing.** ''Dead Man's Curve/The New Girl in School'' is kind of a "split" concept album: the A-side, featuring "Dead Man's Curve", follows on the cars theme of ''Drag City'' while the B-side, featuring "The New Girl in School", has songs about school. Both title songs were previously issued on the same single, which featured a picture sleeve with two distinct sides for each song.* CoolOldLady: "The Little Old Lady from Pasadena" and its various followups ("[[LongTitle The Anaheim, Azusa & Cucamonga Sewing Circle, Book Review and Timing Association]]", "One-Piece Topless Bathing Suit", and the [[{{instrumentals}} instrumental]] "Old Ladies Seldom Power Shift".)* DrivesLikeCrazy: "The Little Old Lady from Pasadena", "Horace the Swingin' School Bus Driver"* DrugsAreGood: Seems to be the message of "Tijuana", a marijuana-themed rewrite of "The Little Old Lady from Pasadena" about a figurative woman who's "the terror of everyone that is a square". Appropriately, it was released as a single in the midst of the PsychedelicRock craze in 1967, and later included on ''Carnival of Sound'', Jan and Dean's own [[{{Vaporware}} long-lost]] flirtation with the psychedelic genre, when it was finally released in 2010.* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: It took a while before Jan and Dean found their trademark California sound. They first started out with a style closer to {{Doowop}} than surf pop and their first couple of "surf" albums only included a few actual surf songs alongside covers of regular pop songs.* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: In the choruses of "Bucket 'T'", they can clearly be heard singing [[ClusterFBomb something else that rhymes with "bucket"]]. The cover by Ronny and the Daytonas (of "G.T.O." fame) makes it even more obvious.* {{Instrumentals}}: A few albums include an instrumental or two as filler. Of interest is "Skateboarding", a two-part instrumental which can be best described as "''Frère Jacques'' goes skateboarding": each part was on a separate album!* InTheStyleOf: Music/FrankieValliAndTheFourSeasons ("Linda"), Music/TheBeachBoys (most of their other hits)** ''Pop Symphony No. 1 (in 12 Hit Movements)'' features covers of Jan and Dean hits in an easy listening style quite similar to that of the Hollyridge Strings, a studio orchestra that specialized in covers of pop artists such as Music/TheBeatles and Music/TheBeachBoys.* LongTitle: "The Anaheim, Azusa & Cucamonga Sewing Circle, Book Review and Timing Association" probably set a [[{{Pun}} record]] for one of the longest titles to be printed on a 45rpm record label. Both the picture sleeve for the single and the cover of ''The Little Old Lady from Pasadena'' album (which includes the song) had trouble with that title, being forced to bend the text to make it fit inside.* NakedPeopleAreFunny: "One-Piece Topless Bathing Suit" is about a 90-year-old lady wearing the titular garment and causing quite a commotion. The trope is invoked InUniverse, with some of the guys "laughing out loud" at the sight of the topless lady.* NewSoundAlbum: ''Carnival Of Sound'', a psychedelic ''Smile''-esque album Jan Berry started work on shortly after his accident. Unfortunately, [[{{Vaporware}} it wasn't released until 2010]].* OvershadowedByAwesome: Despite being one of the preeminent surf-pop acts in their time, they're nowadays remembered mostly as a footnote in the history of the Beach Boys, [[MisattributedSong with whom they are often confused]]. It should be noted that while Jan and Dean (Jan in particular) were talented songwriters in their own right, many of their biggest hits were written at least in part by Brian Wilson - meaning someone trying to acquaint themselves with Wilson's surf music songwriting repertoire would have to listen to a lot of Jan and Dean!* RecordProducer: Jan Berry produced and arranged most of the duo's records himself. Their producers during their years at Doré Records were the then-little-known Herb Alpert and Lou Adler; Alpert later founded A&M Records and became famous for his Tijuana Brass albums, while Adler gained fame as a record producer, most notably at Dunhill Productions (later Dunhill Records) with The Fantastic Baggys, Barry [=McGuire=] and Music/TheMamasAndThePapas.* ShoutOut: The back-cover liner notes for ''The Little Old Lady from Pasadena'' album are credited to "Little Old Grandpa", with the parenthetical notation that "[[Film/AHardDaysNight He's very clean]]".** The title of "The Anaheim, Azusa & Cucamonga Sewing Circle..." references a running gag from ''Radio/TheJackBennyProgram''.* TeenageDeathSongs: "Dead Man's Curve", possibly.----